PM's BAT Thread -- Currently in Stasis

[Patricius Maximus]

Welcome to PM's BAT Thread and Showcase

Patricius Maximus here. Some of you here at SC4D may know me from Franklin County at ST, or from my Older Regions MD here. For those who do not follow Franklin County, I have BATed some signs for my private use in Franklin County.

I consider myself to be an amateur BATer, and I have started this thread here so I can draw on the expertise of the custom content creators here, in assisting with my projects.

Downloads Avaliable:

none currently avaliable



Current Projects by Patricius Maximus:

none currently



Projects Currently on Hold:

PM Power Line Project

A ploppable set of wooden power poles to add to your cities. There will be no wires hanging off of them, so they can be used on slopes. Diagonals will probably be included as well.

Status: BAT Modelling Complete, Reader Work To Be Done
Release Date: Unknown



This post will be updated as information changes.

[art128]

interesant project 
I'm looking foward to this thread in the futur 

[un1]

You BAT? 

Can't wait to see pictures. 

-un1

[deathtopumpkins]

Hey, PM's BATting!

Can't wait to see your power lines. That's a hot BATting topic right now.

[metarvo]

Alright, this seems like a worthwhile project, Patricius. (I may be biased, though ) I will start this off with my answers to these two questions:

Question #1: I actually made some ploppable metal and wood poles of my own, so the height dimensions I'm giving are the ones that I used.  For my metal pole, I used 48 m.  For my wooden pole, I used 31 m.  They seem to work fine, although the wooden pole seems a bit tall at times.

Question #2: There is an excellent tutorial on creating lots with transparent base textures here [linkie].  In actuality, this technique enables one to create lots without any base textures at all, but it requires some minor Reader use.

[threestooges]

As far as height regarding the BAT goes, make the model properly to scale then stretch it about 10% or so in the vertical direction. That's what worked for the ones I did in 3RR. Also, instead of using lots, consider using the technique David (dedgren) has demonstrated here in 3RR. It'll save space and will avoid any issue with the water bug.

[Patricius Maximus]

un1: Yes, I BAT. In a small way.

deathtopumpkins: Yes, I'm BATting. I now know the BAT somewhat, and I'd like to try some other tasks.

metarvo: Thanks for the info. I'll use threestooges's reccomendation for the height. Thanks for the transparent lot tutorial link. I'll try it out soon.

threestooges: Makes sense to me. I think that David's technique is too advanced for me. By the way, what's the water bug?



Thanks for all your help in getting this thing off the ground. I'll be modelling the BATs at the earliest opportunity, and I have a couple of other ideas for future projects.

I look forward to working on this.

[deathtopumpkins]

I figure I'll answer a question while I'm here. If you lay water pipes (pretty sure that's the only thing that causes it) while there are lots plopped with invisible base textures, then said lots will show that griddy background thing, or possibly water, similar to what happens to the in-game beaches. Same bug, and, as Matt (threestooges) noted, making them ploppable is the only way to to have to deal with that. If you do go the lot-based approach, you'd need to go into the zoning data view to get the lots to revert back to normal, and they should stay until you lay water pips again.

[Patricius Maximus]

Ah, I'll be sure to include a notice when I upload the set. Thanks for explaining it, DTP.

[Chrisadams3997]

Fer the record, said water bug only occurs on lots with a transparent base texture AND also an overlay texture.  Since there's no need for an overlay texture for lotted power poles, the water bug won't be a problem.

[Patricius Maximus]

I'm glad. Well, I guess it will not be affected, as I don't plan on any overlay textures.

[threestooges]

Thanks for taking care of that explanation dtp; I think the bug is triggered any time the underground mode is triggered: water (the usual one), subway, anything like that. Chris, I'd forgotten about that requirement about the overlays, thanks for mentioning that. At any rate, good luck with the project PM. I'll keep an eye out for the developments as they come.

[deathtopumpkins]

Fer the record, said water bug only occurs on lots with a transparent base texture AND also an overlay texture.  Since there's no need for an overlay texture for lotted power poles, the water bug won't be a problem.

Really? Hmmm... that's pretty cool. I guess that takes care of that problem. 

And you're welcome PM.

[Patricius Maximus]

I've measured the power poles near my house, and I'm ready to commence the modelling.

Dimensions:

Width: 0.3 m
Height: 9.13 m

Here's a picture of the model so far:



It's all to sale, but the pole is stretched vertically 10%, as suggested.

Minor features will be coming soon...

- Patricius Maximus

[Fatsuhono]

It is a great BAT, but the UVW is messed up. Fix it with UVW coordinates.

[Patricius Maximus]

UVW? As in XYZ coordinates? If so, I can rotate the model in the Lot Editor.

If not, please elaborate.

[art128]

that look nice 

[metarvo]

This is looking good, PM.  I can't wait to see the metal pole, but I know that I will wait.

[deathtopumpkins]

Nice pole, Patricius!

The UVW map is what adjusts how the textures look on the model. In gmax, select "Modifiers" in the menu bar, then "UV Coordinates," and "UVW Map." This adds a modifier to the object that lets you change how many times the texture is repeated over the object. It can best be illustrated with a brick texture. If the bricks look too stretched or squashed horizontally, adjust the U and V Tile values until they look better. I'm not sure what the W Tile value does however, as I never notice any changes by adjusting it. Just mess around with them until you come up with something you like.

Completely different from XYZ coordinates. 

[Patricius Maximus]

Alright. I'll attend to it soon.

Update:

How do you like the wooden pole now?



And a prototype metal pole (yes, I am aware of the texture problem, I'll fix it  ):